Lora Leigh - Lawe's Justice

They eased quietly from the room.

“This is the first day she’s napped in weeks,” Rachel said as Jonas closed the doors carefully behind them.

Her sister was beginning to look exhausted. Exhausted and worried out of her mind.

“We also managed to secretly kidnap one of the researchers involved in the testing at the Brandenmore labs, Jenny Austin-Carrew,” Callan Lyons, alpha of the Feline Prides, stated as he stood from the small table when they reentered the room. “She was a higher-level research assistant, and we’re hoping she actually worked extensively with the head scientists.”

“Have you questioned her yet?” Diane asked.

He gave a shake of his head as his wife, Merinus, moved to his side.

“Ashley was wounded before Jonas could begin questioning her regarding her work. We came right out here with her sisters, Dacey and Marcy. They were still at Sanctuary.”

Ashley’s sisters. The Truing sisters were true sisters. Sharone Bryce hadn’t been conceived by the same mother or the same genetically altered sperm that had been used to fertilize her each time she had conceived.

They were all littermates though, created in the same lab and overseen by the same scientists.

There were no records concerning how the sperm had been altered or who the main donor had been. The five girls, Emma, Ashley, and twins Dacey and Marcy, looked nothing alike, though. They could have been born of completely different genetics rather than from the same donor with the same animal genetic profiles.

“The twins are at the hospital with her,” Merinus stated. “Sharone and Emma are . . . hunting.” Merinus’s pause had Diane shooting Lawe a hard look.

“What or who are they hunting?” she asked.

“They’re with Thor searching for any signs that the Coyote team that bribed Holden Mayhew to kidnap Malachi’s mate didn’t have any friends as backup,” Lawe told her softly. “They’re questioning some of the people Mayhew and the team came in contact with and building a profile of their movements as well.”

They were being kept busy and out of trouble.

Diane raked her fingers through her hair then shoved her hands into the pockets of her jeans and glanced at the others before asking: “Do we have any intel concerning the whereabouts of the girls or the Bengal Judd?” She hated the fact that part of this mission had been taken from her.

“So far, all we have is the suspicion that Terran Martinez brought them to his ranch. A few hours later they were picked up by a group of warriors wearing war paint and disappeared,” Jonas told her.

“Where did you get that information?” Diane asked him, her gaze narrowing in surprise.

“An anonymous call that we haven’t been able to trace.” His jaw tightened angrily. “Terran isn’t confirming or denying the report. He says that if such individuals came into the city looking for safety, then they were now safe, and neither he nor anyone involved at the time would know where they were, who they were with or anyone that could give them that information.”

Diane nodded slowly. “When the Navajo first learned of the children who had been rescued whose genetics matched some of their missing, they created a group whose job was to ensure the protection and hidden identities of those children. I haven’t been able to find even a hint of anyone who could even guess at who any of them are, but Braden Arness’s mated wife, Megan, and her family, confirmed the stories of them.”

The Lion Breed Braden had mated a Navajo empath from New Mexico with close ties to Window Rock. The assassin class Breed now worked with his wife whenever his skill set, or her investigative gifts were needed.

“We’ve informed the chief as well as his father, the medicine man, and Terran, who’s currently the Navajo’s head legal representative, of the situation regarding Amber. Their refusal to give us the identities of at least the two girls and allow us to debrief them concerning their stay at the labs will be viewed as an act of hostility toward the Breeds. As such, the Navajo Nation will no longer be considered a sanctuary for our people, and they’ll be pulled out with all haste.”

Diane sighed wearily as she stared at Callan’s forbidding expression.

This was simply the wrong way to go about it.

Shifting an accusing look toward Lawe, she clenched her teeth in anger at the fact that Jonas had decided it wasn’t prudent to wait for their arrival and allow Diane to do what she did best. Find the people she was looking for.

She didn’t like going behind Lawe’s back, but that was exactly what she and Thor had agreed to do as they waited for Lawe outside the hotel the morning they’d left.

If he thought giving Thor another assignment had changed that, then he was wrong. It had instead given Thor the chance to work as he and Diane preferred. Under the guise of a completely unrelated mission while Diane remained with Lawe and kept the Breeds off his back.

It was usually the other way around. She investigated while Thor ran interference with whichever parties were deemed the most hazardous to their job. But, she knew how to handle this part. She and Thor had perfected both areas of the mission parameters and understood how each worked.

“The Navajo won’t know who they are, where they are or, after all this time, how to reach them,” Diane informed them all as she faced them impatiently. “There’s not even a number that’s called anymore. No one knows how the group becomes aware that a pickup is needed, but they’re always there.”

“Then they have a Breed working with them,” Jonas guessed.

Diane shrugged. “Getting anyone to talk to any of you will not happen,” she told them. “I have some ideas, and once I begin investigating—”

“Once we begin,” Lawe injected.

She glanced up at him, feeling her chest tighten at what she knew she had to do.

“No, once I begin,” she reiterated softly. “They won’t talk to me if you’re around or anywhere close enough to identify them. You’re a Breed, Lawe. To them, you’re the same as a Coyote, a scientist, or a rogue.”

She watched his gaze turn to ice as Jonas cursed softly.

“I hate to keep repeating myself, but I know what I’m doing,” she stated, knowing that with the exception of her sister, possibly, no one there was willing to believe her at this point because of the fact that she was now a mate.

Her chances of investigating were thin to none, but this was her role to play, and if she simply stepped back, then there was no way Lawe would accept that she and Thor hadn’t planned something else.

“Diane, you’re the strongest woman I know,” Rachel said with an edge of bitterness, a clear indication she’d tried to discuss the matter with Jonas. “But the danger to mates right now won’t allow a single Breed in the vicinity to allow you to investigate this on your own.”

Despite the grief she heard in her sister’s voice, the knowledge it could mean her daughter’s life, Diane realized that even her sister couldn’t help her here.

“And all of you are willing to lose Amber for this?” She met her sister’s gaze and watched the tears that welled in her eyes.

“There’s nothing on this earth I wouldn’t do to protect my baby.” Rachel’s voice hitched on a sob. “But nothing is going to change how they’ll surround you or their determination and vows to protect you. Nothing will change the fact that not even my child is as important to Lawe or to the animal genetics that are a part of him as his mate is. Even Jonas’s orders won’t sway him.”

Diane refused to accept that.

Her head lifted as she stared back at the males watching her. “Every damned one of you will get over it,” she told them coolly before turning to Lawe. “You will get Thor back here if that protection is all important to you. He’s not a Breed; he won’t be seen as suspiciously as you will be.”